A week off is a good thing for the Knicks. They can forget that the Raptors embarrassed them at home by a deceptively close 92-88. They can forget #ImSad

They can forget that after a five game winning streak, they dropped 3 of their next 4. The Knicks will hopefully be able to block all the negativity out of their last few games and will start their journey to locking up a high seed Wednesday night in Indiana.

Kidd is no Kid

The focus in the NBA over the next few days will be the trading deadline, set for Thursday at 3 PM Eastern. The most pressing need for the Knicks is a backup guard. The reason? Two words:

Now, most of this can be attributed to Kidd regressing to the mean, but the biggest concern for the Knicks is 27.9. That’s the minutes per game Kidd is averaging this season. While it is a career low, when Kidd has been pressed to play 30 minutes plus, his performance has suffered. He currently averages slightly less minutes per game than the rest his Ancient Four brethren (a crtical stretch of games coming up where they would be favored in nearly every game. They came through that stretch of games 6-3, which is a solid performance for a team trying to keep pace with the Heat in the East.

The second half of the season should give us a better idea of how successful the Knicks will be in the playoffs. The Knicks have nine back-to-back games, and 18 games versus teams with a winning record. The challenge starts tonight against Indiana, the third-place team in the East, a potential playoff opponent, and a team the Knicks dropped their most recent battle against (an 81-76 loss in early January). The Knicks ended their first half on a whimper; they have a chance to start the second half with a bang.